Capitals, Seeking Scoring Balance, Tinker With a Dynamic Twosome

Nicklas Backstrom, right, has set up 137 of Alex Ovechkin’s 377 goals (36 percent) in the past eight years, including 33 of 53 (62 percent) this year.CreditAlex Brandon/Associated Press

By Tom Worgo

April 13, 2015

WASHINGTON — For all of Alex Ovechkin’s accomplishments with the Washington Capitals, it is hard to mention him without including Nicklas Backstrom in the same breath.

Backstrom, a 27-year-old center from Sweden, has set up 137 of Ovechkin’s 377 goals (36 percent) in the past eight years, including 33 of 53 (62 percent) this year.

“He is really our quarterback,” Capitals forward Brooks Laich said. “A lot of Ovie’s success runs off Nicklas’s ability to carry the puck through the middle of the ice and make plays. If another team says, ‘We need to control Ovie,’ it needs to control Backstrom as well.”

In an effort to help his offense, Washington Coach Barry Trotz regularly separated Ovechkin and Backstrom toward the end of the regular season, an arrangement that is expected to continue during the first-round playoff series against the Islanders. Game 1 is Wednesday in Washington.

Backstrom now centers a line with Troy Brouwer and Marcus Johansson, while Ovechkin is left wing on a line with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Joel Ward.

Ovechkin and Backstrom still skate together on the N.H.L.’s top-ranked power play, which scores 25.3 percent of the time. Ovechkin is second in the league in power-play points with 34, and Backstrom is tied for third with 33.

“Luckily for me, he has the greatest slap shot I have ever seen,” Backstrom said.

The introverted Backstrom has played in Ovechkin’s shadow his entire career, and he is comfortable there. Ovechkin is extroverted and emotional, thriving in the limelight, while Backstrom is cool and prefers the background.

“I think they are a perfect mix,” said Brian MacLellan, Washington’s general manager. “Their skills and personalities match perfectly, both off the ice and on. Ovie is powerful, a shooter, a scorer. Nicky is more cerebral. He makes plays and reads plays. He sets the table for Ovie.”

Ovechkin led the N.H.L. in goals, with 53, and is a candidate for his fourth Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player.

Backstrom finished first in assists with 60 and sixth in points with 78. And Trotz considers Backstrom’s defense to be on par with his passing.

Trotz said Backstrom was a “hybrid” of players like Patrice Bergeron and Jonathan Toews, who have won the Selke Trophy for best defensive forward.

“You look at Toews,” Trotz said. “He seems to be physical. He can make plays as well. Bergeron has the intangibles. He wins face-offs and makes big plays on the big stage and quietly competes. That’s Backy. He is a combination of those guys.”

Trotz is not the only one who has noticed Backstrom’s versatility.

“When you are a setup man for Ovechkin and you run the power play like he does in Washington, people get this picture of you, and maybe they only look at you a certain way and don’t ever recognize the completeness of your game,” said Eddie Olczyk, an analyst for NBCSN.

Since Backstrom entered the league in 2007, only Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin (469) and San Jose’s Joe Thornton (451) have had more assists than his 427, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Perhaps surprisingly, Backstrom has never been selected to play in an All-Star Game.

“He never gets any recognition for any part of his game,” Trotz said. “I am blown away that he has never been in an All-Star Game. He doesn’t want the fanfare. The lower under the radar he can be, the better. I just think that’s his personality.”

For his part, Backstrom seems content to leave that attention to others — and he makes good use of the break.

“Usually, you get four days off,” Backstrom said. “I go to Miami or something.”

His low-key demeanor almost certainly contributes to Backstrom’s lack of recognition.

“I would say I’m not really a talker,” he said. “Maybe I’ll say something in between periods. I try to lead by example.”

“I think he’s a role model for everyone in the locker room,” said Johansson, a fellow Swede. “He’s such a good leader on and off the ice. He’s a great guy in every way. He’s someone that everybody looks up to.”

Johansson, a fifth-year pro, also played center when he came into the league and has spent a good part of this season as a right wing on Backstrom’s line.

“He feels like a little brother,” said Backstrom, who tends to open up and talk a whole lot more when the topic shifts from him to his teammates. “The guys are always chirping about that, too — that he is my little brother.”

Backstrom feels just as connected to Ovechkin. But since the birth of his daughter in October 2013, Backstrom said, he has not spent as much time with Ovechkin away from the ice.

“We’ve been playing with each other for so long that sometimes we get mad at each other,” Backstrom said. “We can give each other a little extra boost. We have very high expectations for ourselves and what we can do out there. Some days it doesn’t go our way, so that’s when we push each other.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B12 of the New York edition with the headline: Capitals Shake Up a Dynamic Twosome. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe